Brown, Warren campaigns pivot on Central Mass.

Monday

Nov 5, 2012 at 9:00 AMNov 5, 2012 at 10:49 PM

By John J. Monahan TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

Both sides in the contentious U.S. Senate race expect the vote from Central Massachusetts to be pivotal in determining the winner, as evidenced by both candidates Scott P. Brown and Elizabeth Warren holding campaign stops here today and rallies over the weekend.

Veteran Republicans pointed to big GOP vote totals from Central Mass. for Mitt Romney in his victory in the governor’s race in 2002 and for Scott Brown in his special election win in 2010, saying the Republican votes in Worcester County could be one of the keys to a re-election win for Mr. Brown.

Democrats, however, have ramped up their door-to-door canvassing and effort to get out the vote effort, hoping to blunt the GOP suburban advantage in Worcester County while pumping up numbers from reliably Democratic areas including Worcester.

This past week, more than 890 people signed up for three- and four-hour shifts in Worcester, said former Mayor Joseph O’Brien, who has been working on the Democratic push. “She is following the Patrick-Murray plan of 2006. You have to win the cities by strong margins. You have to win Western Massachusetts and then be competitive in the suburbs,” Mr. O’Brien said.

Lt. Gov. Timothy P. Murray said Worcester Democrats, stunned by Brown’s sweep of the cities and towns of the county, excluding Worcester in the 2010 special Senate election, have been working this year to link up with smaller Democratic volunteer networks in northern Worcester County and Blackstone Valley to maximize Democratic turnout on Election Day.

They are also counting on much higher vote turnout because of the presidential election and on President Barack Obama’s popularity in the state carrying over to Warren. “Worcester County is a swing county. Democrats have won the county, but you have to compete everywhere,” in the cities and the suburban towns, Mr. Murray said.

State Rep. George N. Peterson, R-Grafton, said he expects Brown will do well in the Worcester suburbs. “I think he will do very well in my district of Grafton, Northbridge and Upton. In the more suburban areas, he is going to do very well, but it is going to be a close race because of the inner-city and big-city voters,” Mr. Peterson said. “It could be a nail-biter.”

Mr. Brown campaigned at a diner in Fitchburg at lunchtime today and pulled his campaign bus up at the Worcester police headquarters to ask a group of police recruits training there this afternoon for their vote before heading east for his final campaign stops ahead of a big rally in his hometown of Wrentham tonight.

Meeting with reporters in the parking lot of the police station, Mr. Brown reflected on the four-day whirlwind bus tour he was wrapping up.

“It’s been a wonderful bus ride. We have had a lot of fun,” he said of traveling the state with his wife, two daughters and family dogs since last Thursday.

“It’s about getting out the vote now and just reaffirming and re-establishing the connections we have had over the last two and a half years. I’m very excited,” Mr. Brown said. “The energy feels great. The message is good and I’m just pointing out and reminding people of the differences” between him and his opponent.

“It doesn’t feel any different from any of the elections I have had,” he said, noting that voters are also fatigued with the campaigns and the ads. “They are done with the ads and are ready and anxious to get out and vote.”

Ms. Warren was revved up and campaigning hard today.

Late this afternoon, she met with about 200 of her campaign volunteers at the Broadway Diner on Water Street, urging them to pull out the stops through the close of the polls Tuesday night. They will be contacting targeted voters, tracking those who have not yet voted and offering rides to the polls to make sure all voters likely to vote for Ms. Warren get to the voting booth.

“This race is about whose side you are on. They can send a senator back to Washington who stood with the millionaires, the billionaires and big oil companies, or they can send a senator who will be out there fighting every single day for the working families of Central Massachusetts,” Ms. Warren said.

“I feel the energy,” she said after being cheered by volunteers through every line of her final stump speech.

“I was really serious when I said this isn’t my campaign. This has been our campaign from the very beginning,” Ms. Warren said of the army of volunteers helping her, before leaving the city to continue a final swing into Boston, where she was to speak at a nonpartisan candidates’ night in Roxbury on Election Eve.

“It has truly been a campaign that started in living rooms and kitchens and back yards and a big part of it started right here in Worcester,” Ms. Warren said. “We have tens of thousands of people who have volunteered for this campaign. It’s their campaign, it’s their election, it’s their government.”

Both campaigns have a large field operation under way.

Democrats have relied on their proven system of face-to-face canvassing for their candidate, with volunteers knocking on doors across the state over the last several months to get targeted Warren supporters out to vote.

U.S. Rep. James P. McGovern, D-Worcester, gave Warren campaign volunteers some final advice. “After this, there will be no more rallies, no more speeches. It will be up to us to get out there and do what we need to do. That means the canvassing, the get-out-the-vote calls, driving people to the polls. If we turn out our vote, we are going to have an incredible victory tomorrow night. But we have a lot to do. We are not going to stop until the final votes are cast,” Mr. McGovern told them.

Republicans have set up field offices around the state with volunteers making hundreds of thousands of calls to voters, including several that have been operating for weeks around Worcester County, to identify and track likely supporters.

While the GOP cannot match Democrats in terms of campaign volunteers, they have a muscular get-out-the-vote effort under way, using the most advanced phone call technology to maximize their effectiveness. They will also be checking who votes and directing follow-up calls to likely Brown supporters to get them to cast ballots.